From Cointelegraph
April 18, 2025 2:10 am:

There has been a 66% decrease in crypto rug pulls in 2025 compared to 2024, but the size of each rug pull has been increasing. Early 2024 saw 21 incidents, while 2025 has only had seven so far.

Since the beginning of 2025, the Web3 ecosystem has lost nearly $6 billion to rug pulls, with 92% attributed to Mantra’s OM token collapse. In early 2024, total losses from rug pulls were $90 million three months into the year.

Rug pulls are evolving with memecoins being the main culprit. Most rug pulls in the first quarter of 2025 occurred in memecoins, while in 2024, they originated in DeFi protocols, NFT projects, and memecoins.

The Libertad project’s native Solana token, Libra, experienced a rug pull, rallying to a market cap of $4.56 billion before falling by over 94% due to a pump-and-dump scheme. Rug pulls and exit scams remain a persistent threat in the crypto space.

Several red flags can signal a project is a rug pull, including sudden spikes in active wallets, high volume with low user activity, unverified smart contracts, limited GitHub activity, or anonymous developer teams. Users are encouraged to stay informed and vigilant in the crypto space.

Read more at CoinTelegraph: Crypto rug pulls have slowed, but are now more devastating: DappRadar